Celebrate the iconic and elusive Belgain designer's birthday this week by learning about his life and legacy.&nbsp;

You may know and love the fashion house <a href="https://www.lofficielusa.com/fashion/vintage-maison-martin-margiela-collection-auction-sothebys" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Maison Margiela</a>, but perhaps not its creator, Martin Margiela. Born in Belgium in 1957, <a href="https://www.lofficielusa.com/fashion/maison-margiela-tabi-graffiti-2019" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Martin Margiela</a> is notoriously reclusive, so if you can&rsquo;t picture him clearly in your mind&rsquo;s eye, don't feel bad. What is easily recognizable about the mysterious designer is his influence on fashion. In every deconstructed, upcycled, and/or oversized silhouette you see there is a bit of <a href="https://www.lofficiel.co.uk/fashion-week/a-new-chapter-for-maison-margiela-fall-winter-2020-looks" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Margiela</a>. These characteristics were early trademark&rsquo;s of the designer, long before the industry became saturated with all three. Margiela was devoted to sartorial history and the societal implications of how garments are made. He treated clothing like a surgeon: carefully dissecting in order to reassemble in unexpected ways, leaving each piece better than when he found it.&nbsp; 
In the late 1980s Margiela moved to Paris, just in time to join the next generation of emerging talent including Ann Demeulemeester and <a href="https://www.lofficielusa.com/men/dries-van-noten-fall-winter-2021-mens" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Dries Van Noten</a>. He took an internship with the famous French designer Jean Paul Gaultier, after which he launched his own house, Maison Margiela. The rebellious disposition of the brand was quickly beloved by fashion. From gritty runway locations, to the unconventional models who walked in them, and the ever popular split-toe Tabi shoe, the label's distinct sense of fashion morphed into a style all its own. But it morphed too quickly for Martin Margiela, who feared being sucked into the designer-as-celebrity culture and losing the quality of his clothes to the warp speed demands of fashion commerce. 
So he disappeared. All at once <a href="https://www.lofficielmonaco.com/fashion/save-the-date-martin-margiela-is-back" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Margiela</a> refused interviews, to be photographed, or even exchange backstage pleasantries after a show. He sent clothes down runways without explanation or defense if they received criticism. Margiela&rsquo;s only loyalties were to his clothing and his customers, and it dumbfounded the industry. In 2008 the designer had his very last show and 11 years later released the story behind all of his work in a documentary, <a href="https://margiela.oscilloscope.net/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Martin Margiela: In His Own Words.</a> Created by filmmaker Reiner Holzemer, the film debuted at the <a href="https://www.docnyc.net/film/martin-margiela-in-his-own-words/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Doc NYC</a> film festival in 2019 and is now available on Amazon Prime for streaming.

In HIs Own Words

Martin Margiela: In His Own Words - Official Trailer - Oscilloscope Laboratories HD

In <a href="https://margiela.oscilloscope.net/">Martin Margiela: In</a> <a href="https://margiela.oscilloscope.net/">His Own Words,</a> the designer maintains anonymity by never showing his face, only allowing his voice to be heard. His audio is accompanied by various other fashion historians and experts, and is more than enough to understand <a href="https://www.lofficielmonaco.com/fashion/save-the-date-martin-margiela-is-back" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Margiela&rsquo;s creative vision</a>. But in case you want to learn more, L&rsquo;OFFICIEL digs up 10 facts you probably didn&rsquo;t know about Margiela.

He studied fashion at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts Antwerp between 1977 and 1980. The school has been attended by other major names  in fashion including Dries Van Noten, Raf Simons, Walter Van Beirendonck, Bernhard Willhelm, and Ann Demeulemeester, among others.

 In possibly his only interview on record from his post-graduation years in the early-'80s, he revealed he took to fashion as a kid after watching a TV show featuring 1960s designers Andre Courreges and Paco Rabanne. He said to Sphere magazine: “As soon as I saw their designs I thought, ‘How wonderful, people are doing the sort of thing I want to do.”

Margiela was one of the first major designers to commit to a more sustainable approach to fashion design by re-using and altering already existing garments into new ones, which we are all now very familiar with as upcycling. 

While running his own very busy label, he also took up the role as Creative Director of womenswear for famous French house Hermès in 1998.

Margiela was never bound to traditional notions of beauty. From an early age he adored women with large noses, and consistently throughout his career promoted unconventional models at his shows.

The designer enjoyed using cheap materials within his high end designs as a kind of humor. Everything from coats made from wigs to scarves cut from Christmas tinsel came out of Maison Margiela.

Margiela’s work was so inspiring to Raf Simons that as a young man he switched career paths from being an aspiring furniture designer to pursuing fashion design, instead. 

 He does not like social media and has even cited it as one of the reasons he chose to stop making fashion altogether. Margiela was honored at the 2018 Belgian Fashion Awards, and issued a statement which included an explanation of his dislike: “I felt that I could not cope any more with the worldwide increasing pressure and the overgrowing demands of trade. I also regretted the overdose of information carried by social media, destroying the ‘thrill of wait’ and cancelling every effect of surprise, so fundamental for me.”

The designer has spent much of his retirement from fashion traveling and creating collages and other artworks which he plans to exhibit in Paris at the end of April in what will be his first solo exhibition. 

The rapper/designer Kanye West is a huge fan of Martin Margiela. He referenced him in his 2011 song "Ni**as in Paris," after which Maison Margiela created performance-wear and masks for his 2013 Yeezus tour.  

10 Must-Know Facts About Martin Margiela

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